THE centenary of Withens Lane College will be celebrated at a public meeting at the Grosvenor Ballroom in Wallasey on Friday, April 4, at 7.30pm.

Organisers at the college, which has been scheduled for closure in June, describe this meeting as a celebration of further education in Wallasey and a chance to stress the need to carry on.

Battle plans have been drawn up and the Wallasey Further Education Action Group is calling for supporters to show the top brass they mean business and to keep Withens Lane as a flourishing college.

A petition containing over 20,000 signatures will be handed to Wallasey MP Angela Eagle, who will forward it to the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Shephard. A Students' Union petition containing 1,000 signatures has already been handed in to the Further Education Funding Council's regional office in Manchester.

Chief speakers on the night will be Wallasey MP Angela Eagle, Chair of Wirral Education Committee Coun Mick Groves, and General Secretary of NATFHE, John Akker.

The sacked Liverpool dockers have been invited to the meeting and will be presented with college centenary plaques.

The campaigning single parents, angry about creche cuts in Wirral Met College, have joined forces with the Wallasey Further Education Action Group to support each other against the drastic cuts.

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